What Makes a Writer?

You've probably heard it before; several times if you're a writer. At least once if you're not.

"What do you do?" or "What do you like to do?"

"Oh, I'm a writer."

"Really? That's so cool! What do you like to write? How many times have you been published?"

"Errm..."

One of my three mentors (I'll not specify which for this example) occasionally talks about how unimpressed she is with people who 'claim' to be writers. You know, the ones that show up to every writer group meeting, drink coffee, chat. The ones that bring the same piece of writing over and over, sometimes barely changed since the last meeting. The ones that enter few to no contests, that have never been published. Should they really be allowed to call themselves writers when they don't do anything?

Well, should they? Mostly, I don't really think so.

But then, wouldn't that mean that I'm not a writer either?

Here's the breakdown of my writing life: Besides in the writer group of which I am president at my school, I've been to a grand total of three writer group meetings. My writing often peters out so that I don't even open up my stories file for long periods of time. I have entered three contests and only placed in one of them. I've finished one short-story completely. I've never finished a novel, or even gotten to the end of one. I've never been published.

So am I a writer?

I think I am. Here's why.

I believe that being a writer doesn't just have to do with the tangible evidence, the number of words written, the amount of clips one possesses, the bound pages that signify publication. I think it's something in the mentality, in the heart, or even in the very soul.

My mentality: No matter where I go, I see something and I catch myself thinking up a story about it. My mind works like a writer's without my volition.

My heart: I love writing. I love doing it more than anything. And I mean absolutely more than anything.

My soul: I would die if I had to stop. It is something like my life source. As C. Astrid Weber said, "The coroner will find ink in my veins and blood on my typewriter keys." It's in me.

So. If someone came up and asked me what I do, could I claim to be a writer?